Part 128: Episode CXXIII: The Completionist's Dilemma

Episode CXXIII: The Completionist’s Dilemma



We’re almost at the point where it’s going to be nothing but main plot until we hit Ending C. But that point isn’t here just yet. We’ve got some clean-up to do and almost all of it centers on the Abandoned Factory zone.



9S hasn’t had a single reason to return here in Route C and at no point will he be given a direct reason to come here. And that’s an issue because a whole mess of hacking only chests have manifested themselves here since Route C began.


Music: Wretched Weaponry (Quiet Instrumental)



Pascal really cleaned up all those scrapped machine children nicely. I mean his shop is stocked with an infinite supply of machine body parts for resale. It was just smart to start with the first ones he came upon after rebooting.



But we’re not interested in that. We’re interested in unlocking Hackerman specialized chests. A2 couldn’t handle this... even though they’ve established the Pods can do hacking just fine too and every chest is the most basic hack on the planet. Oh well. Let’s see what we’ve got...



So we got the title of the factory’s death cult – The Religious Order of Divinity Through Death. And the fact they had a PR Department for their suicide pact cult. Knowing machine lifeforms have discovered PR Departments might be the grimmest revelation in some time.





For this revisit to the area, we’re going to be retracing 2B’s path through the bowels of the Abandoned Factory, starting with returning to where all the fun began.





All these torches still burning or month or two later has to be some kind of fire hazard at this point. But let’s be real... would anyone miss the Abandoned Factory if it went up in smoke? There was actually a hackable container behind Kierkegaard’s corpse. But it’s just a Full Recovery. I... don’t think I’ve ever used an actual Full Recovery item in the course of playing this game. Especially, considering you can just spam 25/50/75% heals almost instantly, where you’d have to scroll down and select it and that takes WAY too long! I got shit to do in battles!



At least the atmosphere for our optional revisit to the area is a bit spookier. Remember 9S hacked the factory’s systems to take down the structure’s power to help out 9S with her boss fight against So-Shi. He never bothered to turn that back on considering err... it’s frequently been an enemy stronghold that just pumps out more machines. And then... you know, EVERYTHING that happened immediately after that. As such, the whole area is without lights or power this time around.



It is, however, not devoid of enemies. Not all of The Religious Order of Divinity Through Death’s members went down with the shit during the first incident. Maybe there was some religious schism between those that thought suicide was enough to become a god and those that thought being killed was the only way? Who knows? The point is, it’s still lousy with enemies down here of both the cultists and generic hostile machine variety. We might have picked up a couple more entries into the Unit Data log. Hell if I know what they were or why. I can’t see shit!





Also while we’re back down here, it’s possible to restore the Access Points that had been disabled since Route C began. Turns out there were just some solitary jerk Level 1 machine banging on ‘em like usual. They’ve really got to set up a localized turret or something.





There are a couple points of interest down here beyond just finishing up our inventory on assorted items and documents. For instance, some ways into the journey back to the surface is a catwalk that can be dropped down to a lower catwalk leading back into a lower level of the building. Here, we can enter a previously inaccessible door to find...



Err... are we interrupting something in here, buddy? You seem like you’ve been err... busy, for lack of a better word. If you can’t quite make out what the worshiping machine is standing on...



...it’s a gigantic pile of about a hundred android corpses. 9S can grab a couple plug-in chips off of a few bodies, but there’s otherwise nothing special beyond it being creepy. So that’s fun.





Our first actual stop of note in our revisit is across the (now deactivated) conveyor belts over to the room where we found Noctis of Tekken 7 fame’s sword way back in Route A with 2B. There was a locked chest here we couldn’t access and 9S’s jacked body wasn’t up to the task in his Route B trek through the area. In theory it’s probably possible to do the platforming if you really finessed the jankiness of it all...



...It’s more of the dozen suicide bomber machines coming in from all directions immediately that would have been a slight issue with a clunky machine hijacked body. But as soon as they’re sorted out by adept Pod Fire or 9S face-tanking explosions, we can unlock that chest to find...



Your friend had the answer to escape, pal.





Our second stop is further up the assembly lines, where a roofed conveyor belt can be traversed to reach a hacking locked door. 9S can sort that out in short order to find...



Err... again... Are we interrupting something, here? What are you all praying to? Another dead mach—



Well, hello there. Is that one of them Masamune’s master sealed black/white weapons? We’re missing one of those things. Do you all mind if 9S here just had a closer look?



Oh... Yes, in fact, they all very much minded we disturbed the sacred icon of the newly formed spin-off of The Religious Order of Divinity Through Death, the Church of the Obsidian Spear of Cruel Arrogance. Sorry, but 9S isn’t big on faith these days... Outta the way!





This is a middle of the road spear with Attack Speed Up with basic upgrades and Dark Impulse (Attack Power up at critical health) when maxed out. I’m not sure what all the worship was about. Maybe the weapon story can illuminate us...


Saaaaaaay! I know fourth guy! What a dumbass! He never even fixed his sick daughter. Also, this spear is new to NieR: Automata so I don't know what it's playing at with that bogus weapon tale. Stop writing fanfictions with baby murder, Accord.





Our next stop is just before the So-Shi fight arena for 2B. There’s another locked door only 9S could access and he never had the ability to do so until this route. In here we find...



A kind of annoying room, actually. Our goal in this room is actually in the upper levels. See how there’s some platforms up there? Yeah. There’s no immediately evident way to reach ‘em.





So naturally you’d think to just press forward, which leads to a conveyor belt with some crushers that are still active... somehow. They’ve now got a way more erratic pattern. And they’re still a one-hit kill if 9S missteps. So that’s fun. Especially since the last save point was about ten minutes back. There’s about four of these crushers still active along the conveyor belt (which is thankfully deactivated.)



The issue is that this just leads to a dead end with a chest with middling upgrade supplies. There’s no way to reach the upper levels from here. So have fun doubling back past the insta-kill crusher blocks.



What’s not super evident is that the first two crusher blocks are deactivated. And 9S can, with a bit of janky platforming, actually jump from the top of the second one to the first one.



From here (using an awkward jump that makes him bash his head on the machinery and fall short several times or maybe that was just fucking me ) 9S can employ the outright bad platforming mechanics of NieR: Automata to just make it up to the platforms near the entrance to the room.



The way above is lousy with spider robots hanging out and raining energy orbs below towards the intruding android. It’s worth mention, you can totally aggro these while trying to make that earlier jump and they’ll rain shit all on 9S making it even harder to get up, but they’re all out of range from 9S actually retaliating. SO THAT’S FUN!



Getting past all that, 9S still needs to jump across the conveyor belts in the dark while a good half dozen Level 60 Flyers swoop in his way and get to be a general nuisance. Fall down and it’s back past the shitty crusher gauntlet again!



Finally, at the end of this shithole room is a locked chest 9S can plunder. This had better be good...



Goddammit. Nothing good came from Grimoire Noir. That book was a dick! No wonder some file mentioning that jerk is at the end of a bunch of bullshit. Frikkin’ on brand.





Up ahead, the wreckage of So-Shi is still burning and sparking. Again, that’s probably some kind of fire hazard. But frankly, I hope this place burns down now.





Taking the elevator back to the top level of the Abandoned Factory and swing a right, we find another locked chest behind some stairs. A very important piece of Intel is within...



You will eat your goddamn potatoes with your meatless meat and you will like them or so help me, I’ll work you to the bone, Frank!





We have one last stop on our final tour of the Abandoned Factory. This one is one more romp to the ass end of the area across from the wreckage of that very first Marx unit where 2B and 9S met. Ahh... memories.



Speaking of dead YoRHa soldiers, there’s one here with a Pod emitting one of those high frequency beeps to let us know there’s a new Pod Program to obtain.



A160: Missile is a Pod Program which turns our Pod into a battering ram charge attack. Which sounds like it could be alright... on paper at least. A good forward thrust attack is usually solid in character action games, right?



Unfortunately, a Stinger this ain’t. Missile causes our Pod (with android holding on for no real purpose other than covering distance) to charge forward... for all of like ten feet. You’d think that blurb about directional movement in the Program’s description would mean it sailed for a bit but nope... It’d take two uses of it just to get across that bridge ahead there. And if it so much as brushes up against any geometry, Missile immediately ends.



The Level 3 version is identical in the distance it travels. Maybe it does more damage? Indeed, I’d say that’s likely the case. Unfortunately, Missile Pod Program sails a few feet above. As such, it just flew over the head of any nearby Stubbies I could test it on. So yeah... Gonna say maybe A160: Missile sucks ass. It’s not utterly useless like say Repair. But it’s real close!



Obtaining the Missile Pod Program brings our grand total to 94%. Turns out I forgot one. With good reason because it is also terrible. But hey... May as well go fetch it while we’re cleaning out lingering business.



That said, we are saying goodbye to the Abandoned Factory for good. There is now absolutely zero reason to ever return to that location. So long, Junk Heap successor. You weren’t quite as terribly tedious to navigate. But you weren’t great either...


Music: Emil’s Shop Theme (SPEED)



I was going to go just grab that last Pod Program and call it an update. But as luck would have it, Emil was tooling around the area as I was approaching the final Pod Program’s resting place and I thought “what the heck, let’s see what he’s got...”



In doing so, the RNG Gods smiled upon me because Emil happened to be carrying his rare shop inventory. This goddamn thing took me an hour to spawn the first time I played the game. Yes, I know all the lousy tricks to reroll his inventory. Good for you if you had it work straight away. I don’t want to hear about it. In fact, go fuck yourself if you were thinking about going “Hoho! I got his stuff to show up all the time no problem!” You’re a shitty person for thinking that was a good post. Go do everyone a favor and tumble off the nearest bridge, shithog.



Emil’s Item Shop rare inventory has quite a bit of interest within it. All these expensive ass items are rare drop upgrade materials that are only sold here. The first two items, however, are two of the three remaining Combat Bracers in the game. Let’s take a closer look...



The Type-3 Fists are reasonably strong but slow Combat Bracers that come with Endurance Up (higher defense) and at Level 4 they gain Finishing Blast, a unique trait which causes the fists to just explode on completion of a combo (i.e. just hitting attack without any other inputs until the animation combo concludes.) Exploding fists are usually pretty rad. This isn’t a bad choice for 9S since most of his combos are fairly short to execute. But what we’re really here for is the weapon history. So let’s get to it!


Well uhh... that went dark places. Emil, what are you doing with the rape victim blaming fist in your secret stash inventory? I thought you were better than that.



Angel’s Folly is a somewhat weaker Combat Bracer that gains Attack Speed Up with basic augmentations. Given the proper love, it gains Angel’s Mercy which restores HP when defeating enemies. In case the handful of Plug-in Chips you had equipped already that did something similar wasn’t quite enough healing via combat.

Let’s see if this weapon story is any lighter...


Heaven being full of sadomasochistic torturers seems on brand with the established Drakenier universe. Anyway, this now brings our weapon total to 94% Completion. One weapon we’ll be receiving soon via the exploration of a future area. The other we’ll be picking up in the post-game since it might involve defeating a Level 99 Super Boss and our androids are not up to that challenge just yet.



Emil’s rare inventory features one additional special item only found here – the Dress Module. Did you know taking a massive amount of damage will destroy our androids’ clothes? That’s technically what happens with Self-Destruct. It’s inflicting the maximum amount of damage possible without outright killing 2B or 9S. I’ve seen that happen exactly never from taking damage in combat. But worry not! Now fears of running around with a wardrobe malfunction are a thing of the past!

However, this actually has two functions. The first is to equip it, which will enact the aforementioned prevention of destroying clothes. The Dress Module can also be Used in the inventory. This results in...





Purposefully removing 2B’s skirt or 9S’s shorts (of which he has smaller shorts underneath.) Sure... Why not? There’s an achievement for running around with 9S’s shorter shorts for an hour. 9S seems to have zero complaints considering the trophy is named “Not That I Mind...” with an icon of his shorts.



OK... Let’s just put 9S’s proper shorts back on and never speak of this again.



Finishing up with Emil’s special stock, I’m going to go ahead and blow most of our funds acquiring 15 of everything here. That should cover most remaining upgrade needs for high end equipment. Hopefully... I’m probably forgetting something that actually needs 17 total units and I’ll have to spend 40 minutes getting Emil to roll out the correct inventory again. But that’s on me.


Music: Rays of Light





Getting back on track... Remember that rooftop we frequently landed Flight Units on back during Route A/B? That now has a dead YoRHa soldier holding a Pod containing the final Pod Program. A100: Decoy.



It’s nice of 2B to posthumously model for one last Pod Program example picture. Decoy does about what you’d expect it to – be pretty damn useless! But let’s take a closer look.



Decoy spawns a hologram of A2 or 9S which will draw aggro from particularly dumb machines at which point the Pod projecting the image will open fire... That’s it. It draws aggro for like ten seconds and you lose Pod Fire because it’s automatically doing it instead.



The Level 3 version of Decoy makes it so all three Pods will fire on any dumb machines that happen to be attacking this hologram in the next ten seconds. Keep in mind, you cannot spawn a Decoy at distance. It’s only right next to 9S/A2 and also has no guarantee machines will take the bait. It also has a 12.5 to 20.5 second cooldown time for that massive boon it grants.

That’s the final Pod Program in NieR: Automata! It’s total shit!



In any case, that concludes all of the extracurricular activities we’ll be doing in Route C proper. It’s all main plot all the time until we reach Ending C. Stay tuned... I’m sure it’ll all turn out just fine for everyone involved.






Video: Episode 123 Highlight Reel





Emil Concept Art – Every day’s a saaaaaaaale! Every sale’s a wiiiiiiin!